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Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) yesterday expressed disappointment and displeasure at the deplorable state of navigational aids at airports around the country, which makes flying in the Nigerian airspace virtually impossible during the harmattan season.
The situation has led to continuous delays and cancellations of flights, thereby increasing the sufferings of passengers and disrupting their plans for the yuletide season.
Speaking during a press briefing yesterday, Nogie Meggison, chairman of AON, decried the situation and described it as appalling.
Meggison noted that exactly 48 years today, on December 28, 1968, the first aircraft operated at CAT lll and landed in zero (0) visibility at Heathrow Airport, yet Nigeria was unable to land aircraft with visibility of about 800m.
“Most international and local flights had to be diverted to Cotounu yesterday, which is rather unfortunate. The issue of the harmattan haze is a yearly seasonal occurrence as Nigeria has mainly Raining (Thunderstorms) and Dry Seasons (harmattan).
“If the world has been landing in zero or virtually no visibility since December 28, 1968, today 48 years later on December 28, 2016 on the anniversary of the first CAT III landing at Heathrow Airport, Nigeria still can’t land with 800 meters of visibility?
“Why are the Navigation aids not working or upgraded over the years? Why is there no solution to this issue after forty years of the airlines crying out? “It is rather shameful that today in the 21st Century, we are still talking of operating at CAT l and unable to land at 800m at our airports,” he said.
He disclosed that for the past three days MMA in Lagos was shut down until 6pm before flights could land. Hence no airline could fly and passengers were delayed with colossal loss of revenue to the operators.
Checks show that a Dana Air flight that departed Abuja at 10am could not land in Lagos and had to return to Abuja until 6pm before flying back again, still leaving about 500 to 600 passengers to various destinations stranded at the airport.
“This is very unfair to operators who cannot charge passengers for the extra cost the airline has to bear on return or cancelled flights and we have to feed and lodge them in a hotel. NAMA and FAAN need to be more responsible to ensure that our airports are equipped with the right landing aids to allow 24 hours operations in any weather condition,” Meggison said.
